


just stay alive (that would be enough)

by tangledintime



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Daydreaming, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Romance, Sappy, aka the babysitting fic no one asked for, did i fall into a bottomless pit of peter/mj fics?, lil bit, you're damn right i did
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 12:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11668791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangledintime/pseuds/tangledintime
Summary: “You’d think, oh, a one year can’t be that bad to take care of.”Peter knows it’s coming, so he prompts her. “But?”There’s a sound of loud, shrill, wailing from the crib once more. “This little gremlin won’t stop crying!”In which one night babysitting has got Peter thinking about the future, something he rarely did nowadays.





	just stay alive (that would be enough)

It’s around nine at night when Peter gets the call. 

His phone lights up with her caller id, a photo he took of her sitting at her bay window, reading. The sun pouring in through the blinds and caressing her silhouette in just the right ways. He answers after a few seconds, needing time to set his stuff down. “Hello?” he answers, chin in hand. 

“Peter!” MJ cries in relief. Peter is suddenly a little more aware of the conversation about to happen. “Thank god!”

What begins to worry him is not the fact that she’s calling him late at night, it’s the fact that this is probably the most emotion she’s ever used when talking. “MJ, are you okay?”

“No, no I’m not, you tool why would I be calling you?” he tries to ignore the jab, but it does sting. “I’m calling because I need help, fast.” 

He’s already up, rushing to get his suit on. “Okay, where are you?”

“My apartment.” he halts. 

“You’re apartment?” his spider suit hung limply in his hand. “What’s going on?”

Just then, as if on cue, there’s a piercing, unforgiving cry in the background. MJ groans, a defeated and nearly sad sound. “Crap.” she whispers to herself. “You woke her!”

Peter drops the suit, offended. “I didn’t wake her, who even is her?”

He can practically feel MJ pinching the bridge of her nose from here. “She’s my aunt’s kid. She was sleeping until you rudely woke her up.”

“Your cousin, then?” he’s slightly more relaxed now, the feeling of immediate danger having left his system at the fact that this was a Peter Parker problem, not a Spider-Man one. 

Another cry drowns her out for a moment. “As of now, if she doesn’t shut up, she’s not any relative of mine.” 

Peter chuckles softly, grabbing his keys instead of his suit. “Why do you need my help,” he says, even though he’s more than willing to do anything she asks these past few months(shut up). “I’m no good with kids.” a lie, he can pride himself that he’s actually quite good with kids, Mrs. Walters’ kids seem to love him. 

It seems Michelle can see through this bullshit, and she can’t even see him! “Oh, leave the shitty excuses for Mr. Harrington and get your ass down here. I’m afraid I’m gonna loose my mind.” 

He slings his bag over his shoulder, perching his phone between his shoulder an ear. “Alright, alright, I can be there in ten minutes.” 

“Get here in five or I swear I’m kicking you off the decathlon.” 

His head snaps up. “You can’t do that!” 

“Five minutes, Parker, I’m counting!” 

And with that, she hangs up, leaving him in the hallway of his apartment, jaw slack and eyes wide. He knows a tactic, but with MJ, you could never be too sure if she meant it or not. 

So, he tells May where he’s going, before leaving his apartment and sprinting to hers. The urge to use his web shooters is high, but he decides against it. MJ is still unaware of his double life, so showing up like that might give everything away at the worst time possible. So, he sticks to the ground, racing through the streets with a goal in mind. Get to the Jones household on time. He does’t know why he wants to help her so badly, he wants to chalk it up to getting threatened with expulsion from the decathlon team, but really it was to impress her. 

He arrives in six, to a even more frazzled looking than usual Michelle at the door as she blew a piece of her messy hair out of her face. “Get in.” she says, voice tired and done with everything. 

Once he’s inside, it’s like a bomb had gone off in the living area. Toys and clothes are strewn about the place, there’s a crib in the middle, the epicentre of the catastrophe he guesses, where a one year old stands, looking out at him with big, brown doe eyes. He smiles at the baby, waving a little as he puts his bag down. Michelle scoffs beside him. “Don’t let those suckers fool you.” she points to the little girl’s eyes. “She’s a demon.” 

“What’s her name?”

“Riley, or something, I’m so tired at this point I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten.” she shakes her head, trying to rid herself of her sleepy stupor. “Yeah, it’s Riley.” 

Peter nods, looking at his friend who is struggling to keep her eyes open and it’s only nine fifteen. He laughs to himself, even in her exhausted state, MJ tended to give off an aura of effortless beauty. His face grows soft before he blinks. _Not the time to think about, Peter._

“So, who’s idea was it?” MJ frowns. “You babysitting Riley?”

“Oh, mine.” it’s Peter’s turn to frown. She didn’t seem to be enjoying the task she had elected herself for. “I’m starting to regret it now.”

“I can tell.”

“I thought it would be easy!” she defends. “I thought I would be getting some easy money. You’d think, oh, a one year can’t be that bad to take care of.”

Peter knows it’s coming, so he prompts her. “But?”

There’s a sound of loud, shrill, wailing from the crib once more. “This little gremlin won’t stop crying!”

Peter has to control his wince as Riley’s screams reach his ears. If he thought sensory overload would be a problem fighting crime, this was a new type of pain. MJ goes to pick up her cousin, bobbing her up and down, patting her on the back, shushing her. “Shh, Riles, it’s okay.” 

“Have you fed her?”

“No, you dweeb, I’m starving her!” she quips, but relents quickly, nodding. “Yeah, I gave her a bottle an hour ago.” 

“Um, changed her?” she nods, her face contorting into a weird mix of frustration and sadness, as Riley continues to cry. “Burped her?”

“Kind of. I don’t know if you’ve gathered, but I’m not good at this.” she sighs, patting the child’s back in an attempt to remedy her. It doesn’t work. 

Peter knows there’s different types of baby cries, aunt May told him that once. He’s just completely forgotten which means what. He knows one has to do with over tiredness, he just needs to figure out if this is the one. Michelle lets out a cry of her own. “Peter, help me!” 

He springs into action, scooping up the baby from her. Riley stares at him, whimpering with unshed tears threatening to flow. “Hey,” he coos, smiling softly at the young child. “Hey, Riley, it’s okay.” Riley’s eyes droop slightly as he sits down on the couch. “Shh, go to sleep, sweetie, that’s it.” in seconds, she’s flat out, drooling on Peter’s shirt but he doesn’t care. He’s pretty sure he’s gonna melt from the cuteness. MJ is still standing, looking down at him in utter shock. 

“How?” is all she can manage to get out. 

“I must be better with babies than I thought.” it’s a complete lie, again, he knew he was good with kids. He just didn’t know he was this good.

It takes Michelle a minute before she’s flopping onto the couch beside him, head lulling a bit. “Okay then, it’s settled. Riley now belongs to you for the next few hours.”

“What?” he whisper-yells, careful not to wake Riley and begin the entire process again. 

“Yup, now shut up and let me sleep.” 

Before he can retaliate, he hears her soft snores in his ear, her head ending up on his left shoulder, matching Riley on his right. He sits there for a few moments, not sure how to manoeuvre himself so that he is also comfortable but one little groan of protest from MJ’s sleeping form is enough for him to abandon the plan completely and just accept that his butt will be numb for the next hour at least. 

He tilts his head a little so he had full view of the situation he’s currently in. Baby in one arm, Michelle hogging the other. It’s a scene he never expected himself to be in. Peter’s never been one to think of his future, or at least, so far into it, but he can picture a night like this when he’s in his late twenties or early thirties. He’d be holding his newborn child, his significant other beside him. For awhile, before the bite and before the Avengers, the face of his partner was Liz Allen. But something about that dream never seemed right. Now, when he’s imagining his future once again, Michelle becomes that blank slate. She’s there, once with a pregnant belly and yelling at him for being so reckless in a fight, then she’s there with a newborn in a cradle, over it like a mother lioness protecting her cubs. Then, she’s beside him, half of her face squished up against his shoulder, wrecked from another all nighter, as he is, but her one nighters are always worse. 

Like he says, Peter doesn’t think about his far future that much anymore. With a job like his, you tend to live in the moment. You never know if you’re going to make it to the next day. Especially now, what with the months he’s been having. Honestly, there was a point during his fights with Vulture where he didn’t want the family type future to happen. But now, as he’s starting to feel his butt loose feeling and Michelle’s drool soaking into his t-shirt, that future seems like something he would stay alive for. 

So, he does something bold, he presses a feather light kiss to the top of her rat’s nest of a top knot bun. The movement stirs one of the girls, and he freezes to make sure it isn’t Riley. It isn’t, thank god, it’s Michelle, who shoots up from her spot, face red. She wipes the corner of her mouth, clearing her throat slightly. “Sucks for your shirt.” she says, offhandedly pointing at it but not looking. 

“MJ?” he whispers, standing up gingerly to walk Riley to her cot. 

“Mmhm?” 

He sets the baby down. “You’re really cute when you snore.” when he looks back at her, she looks offended, and he pales. “What?”

“Shut the fuck up, I don’t snore.” 

“Yes you do, and be careful, don’t swear in front of the child.” he chastises.

“Shit, sorry.” he pretends to be mad, but he smiles anyway because MJ is too adorable in this groggy state. 

He sits back down, patting his shoulder. “Come on, go back to sleep.”

“No, no, I’m awake.” she says through a yawn that betrays her statement. “I’m not tired….”

She’s resting her temple on his forehead moments later, though he can tell her eyes aren’t closed. “MJ?” he says again. 

“What?” she snaps, but there’s no bite in her words. 

“If I asked you out, what would say?”

She lets out a long breath out through her nose, before snuggling up closer to him, snaking her arms around his. “I would say, ‘shut up and let me sleep’.”

“You said you weren’t tired.” 

She kicks his foot, and that’s as good as an answer to him. 

Peter was never one to think about the future, but if it’s a future with MJ, then he might just stay alive long enough to see it through.

**Author's Note:**

> lol i fell into a pit of reading peter x mj fics so i decided to dig myself further into it and contribute to the masses of fics based on these two dorks in love! hope you enjoyed!


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